The race to launch the first crypto powered messenger app is heating up. Naturally the internet monopolies such as Facebook are scrambling to be first, but looking at its history it is one of the least suitable to handle decentralized currencies. New contenders are appearing on the scene with far better credentials than the world’s largest social media platform.
Disruptive Technologies The Way Forward
Crypto and Facebook have made it into a number of headlines over the past year. Many are clutching at digital straws in the hope that a huge internet conglomerate getting into crypto would drive adoption and revive battered markets. It hasn’t happened yet but any participation from the social media is likely to involve its own token and not one of those already established. In fact last month it announced the development of a stablecoin to be used over its acquired WhatsApp chat service. Ironically the former owner of which has already urged users to delete their Facebook accounts.
Other alternatives are entering the scene and they are ones that do not have their sights on world domination or locking users into their own ecosystem. Zulu Republic has been touted as a harbinger of disruptive technology as it works across multiple platforms. The company’s Lite.IM aims to facilitate crypto transactions across different messenger platforms including Facebook, Telegram and even SMS as previously reported by NewsBTC.
With a mission to “advance the development of decentralized technologies, to promote human rights and empowerment around the globe, and to reduce the global digital divide,” Zulu Republic sounds like the complete opposite of Facebook.
Facebook Faces a Meltdown
Privacy issues have plagued Facebook in recent years and few of the headlines have been positive. The alleged involvement in US election interference by Russia was the start. A platform that is so easily manipulated to keep its users in a comfortable bubble, only seeing what they want to see is insidious to say the least.
Add to that the revelations by British research firm Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm hired by Trump’s 2016 election campaign, which gained access to private information on more than 80 million Facebook users. The company offered tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. Facebook’s suffering did not end there as it faced a reputational meltdown last year culminating with Zuckerberg and his billions being put in the spotlight by congress.
Then there was the story that Facebook censored its own users from posting about the 50 million accounts that were hacked during a network breech in September. It doesn’t stop there as censorship is commonplace for America’s multinationals which is why they are not suited to handle crypto. Finally Facebook has already admitted to farming and profiting from user’s personal data.
Facebook is the total antithesis of cryptocurrency which advocates security, privacy and decentralization. The platform is a centralized, censored, manipulated, exposed and untrusted data farm. How many people will be comfortable transferring any form of crypto assets to or from it now?